Yearbook 2011
Indonesia. Indonesia’s reputation as a Muslim country characterized by tolerance became somewhat disgraceful during the year. A video showing how a Muslim mob killed three members of the Islamic branch of Ahmadiya caused great outrage both in the country and around the world. The film showed how more than a thousand men came to Ahmadiya’s premises, where they tore out the prayers and began to beat them with slips, stones and knives while police watched without intervening. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of INA that stands for the country of Indonesia.
Twelve men were tried but no one was charged with murder. The sentence varied between three and six months in prison, which was even less than the prosecutors had demanded. Ahmadiya has emerged from Islam but the followers are considered by most Muslims to be apostates. Just days after this death attack in Java, a Muslim mob burned down two churches on another part of the island in protest that a Christian man accused of violating Islam had escaped with five years in prison. The mob demanded the death penalty. Later in the year, rumors in the city of Ambon led to the death of a Muslim motorcycle taxi driver by Christians to riots that claimed five lives and injured dozens. According to police, the man had died in a traffic accident.
According to Countryaah official site, Islamist prayer leader Abu Bakar Baasyir was sentenced in June to 15 years in prison for contributing to funding the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Aceh, which is said to have murdered Westerners and political leaders. The charge for providing weapons was dropped, which saved him from a possible death penalty. Baasyir appealed against the verdict, which he considered “a disgraceful work by the devil’s friends,” and a higher court softened the sentence to nine years, without further justification.
In January, the verdict fell into a corruption havoc that shook the nation for a year. A lower official at the tax authority was sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly helping big business owners trick the state into billions in withholding tax. During the trial, the man testified about how he bribed police and prosecutors to continue his business, for which he himself earned millions. The deal had ramifications in the country’s political elite and damaged the confidence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who profiled himself as a tough opponent of corruption.
In a poll in June, for the first time, fewer than 50% of respondents said they had confidence in the president. Shortly before, the former treasurer of the president’s party had fled the country after being accused of corruption.
A government reshuffle in September convinced neither investors nor the general public, and it aroused some surprise that Yudhoyono in June appointed his own brother-in-law to the Army Chief of Staff. Three soldiers who were seen on video torture three arrested civilians in the eastern province of Papua were sentenced by a military court to up to ten months in prison. A popular rock star who appeared on video to have sex with two TV celebrities was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Jakarta
Jakarta, formerly Batavia, capital of Indonesia; 9.6 million residents (2010). The town is almost merged with the neighboring towns of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi; Jabotabek metropolitan area has approximately 28 million Jakarta is situated on a plain on the banks of the river Ciliwung on the northwest coast of Java. The area is hit by recurring floods during the October-March monsoon. In the past, the city was mainly an administrative and commercial center, but much of the newly established industry is now found in the city’s vicinity.
The development of the cityscape reflects the different rulers over time. During the colonial period, the city was divided into areas for Chinese, Arabs, Dutch and Indonesians. After independence, President Sukarno sat downis characterized by numerous statues and monuments, and now Jakarta’s center appears as a cosmopolitan metropolis with wide boulevards and business districts in marble and glass. Impressive highway construction has partly solved the major traffic problems in the giant city, but also contributes to intense air pollution. In general, infrastructure expansion has been difficult to keep up with the huge urban growth; Among other things, one can find open sewers side by side with modern skyscrapers. However, many slums in the 1980’s and 1990’s have been cleared and replaced by shopping centers and hotels. The 14-storey Hotel Indonesia, the city’s first high-rise building, was built in the 1950’s; it is now hidden among skyscrapers along the main street Jalan Thamrin.
During the massive urban development, a large part of Jakarta’s residents have had to move, and in the area’s former rice fields, suburbs are growing with middle-class housing; the commuting distance to the center is often an hour and a half. As a tourist destination, Jakarta seems underrated; the city has several museums, monuments and an interesting harbor with sailing ships. Jazz and theater life also invites you to visit. The Tanjung Priok Traffic Port and Soekarno-Hatta Airport are both the largest in Indonesia.
During the country’s political and economic crisis of 1997-98, there were extensive demonstrations in the city against Suharto’s government; several were killed, but turmoil ceased when the president resigned.
There have been settlements in the area since 400-h. In 1527 the Sultan of Bantam beat the Portuguese here and then called the place Jayakerta. In 1619, the Dutch under Jan Pieterszoon Coen conquered and destroyed the city and built Batavia, which became the center of the Dutch East Indies colonies until Indonesia’s independence in 1949. Then the city became the capital and renamed Jakarta, from 1972 Jakarta.